The Weekly Whatever: Covidchella 2022 edition
Update
Crapto
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NFT project loses $34m permanently locked away by code bug.
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Decentralized finance project relies on community governance. Hacker borrows almost $1 billion in a flash loan, gaining a 67% voting stake in the project; votes to transfer $182m to themselves, then repays the loan after 13 seconds. The project’s “stable” coin promptly crashes from $1 to $0.14. Founders: “we are fucked”.
Science
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Space science community thinks the time is ripe to study Uranus in depth.
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Chinese scientists teach two monkeys to play Pac-Man.
Permademic
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US is dramatically undercounting COVID-19 infections in the latest surge.
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Airlines that dropped masking requirements suddenly find themselves short of staff and canceling flights a few weeks later.
Business
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Tesla Model 3 software freezes, causing car to stick at 83 MPH.
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Exxon bans pride flag from being flown outside its offices.
Politics
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Arizona Republican Congresswoman claims that Border Patrol agents arrested a billion people at the U.S.-Mexico border over the past six months.
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Inside the far-right community that’s not MAGA and not QAnon.
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Thanks to ebooks, COVID disinformation, LGBTQ+ conversion therapy advocacy, and Holocaust denial are available from the library.
Heroes
- Ukrainian millionaire realizes Russian troops are using his abandoned house as a base, so he asks for it to be bombed.